Category: Uncategorized

During the International Film Festival Rotterdam (25 January – 5 February 2017), Erasmus SG organized their annual IFFR edition of Erasmus Studio. Here, I was invited to discuss whiteness and (lack of) ethno-racial diversity in film, together with Malique Mohamud and Geert Maarse. The entire discussion – which took many interesting turns – can be watched on YouTube.

We (Pauwke Berkers, Niels van Poecke and I) succesfully launched the first edition of Music Talks this week! We were happy to see such a massive interest from people in Rotterdam to join us in a conversation on gender inequality in popular music. It’s safe to conclude that we had a sold-out/full house!

Music Talks is a sequence of artistic symposia with which we try to bring the university closer to the city of Rotterdam. In these symposia, one of the following relevant topics takes a central position: (1) Gender inequality in music, (2) Music, creative scenes and the city, (3) Authenticity in music), and (4) Selling music online. In an interactive debate, academics, music professionals and musicians discuss these topics. Each session is organized by scientists of the Erasmus University Rotterdam (Department of Arts and Culture Studies), in cooperation with WMDC/Grounds (location), Roodkapje (artistic contextualization), and other partners from the Rotterdam cultural field.

Music Talks is funded with the generous support of the City of Rotterdam, SG Erasmus, Erasmus Trustfonds, Stichting H.M.A. Schadee-fonds and Stichting Elise Mathilde fonds.

I was very happy to receive a Fulbright Scholarship on May 27th for the research project “Has Elvis finally left the building? Boundary work, whiteness and the reception of rock music in comparative perspective.” With this scholarship, I will be able to take my research to Emory University, Atlanta (USA) in the summer of 2016 to further research race, ethnicity and rock music in the local music scene of Atlanta. Each year, around 4,000 international graduates/young professionals receive Fulbright Scholarships to do research in the United States. The scholarship was awarded to me by Timothy Broas, the American ambassador .